Sam Coffman is founder and lead instructor of The Human Path, which is an ecology-based school in the San Antonio area that teaches wilderness living and survival skills, outdoor fitness, self-defense, wilderness medicine, herbology, leadership and more.

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The Amazing Lantana Plant

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**NOTE – ALL OF THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS ONLY TO SHARE THE MEDICINAL RESULTS I HAVE PERSONALLY EXPERIENCED WITH THIS AND OTHER PLANTS. NO INFORMATION IN THIS BLOG IS ANY SUBSTITUTE FOR A PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE, AND I AM IN NO WAY PRESCRIBING OR EVEN RECOMMENDING THIS OR ANY OTHER PLANT AS TREATMENT FOR ANYONE WHO IS READING. MOST, IF NOT ALL POWERFULLY MEDICINAL PLANTS CAN BE QUITE TOXIC, DEPENDING ON THE PART OF THE PLANT USED, YOUR OWN WEIGHT/HEALTH AND HOW MUCH OF THE PLANT IS USED. PLEASE EXERCISE CAUTION AND USE AT YOUR OWN RISK**

When we first moved to Texas a little over 4 years ago, one of the plants that immediately caught my interest was a small bush that is very common throughout the hill country, central and south TX. This plant made me think of nettles family or mint family, with its opposite, spiny leaves and square stems. However, it is in another family which also contains (medicinal) plants with opposite leaves and square stems – namely the Verbena family.

Various species of Lantana grow throughout the tropics and southern US States

Knowing that there wouldn’t likely be much information on this plant in any typical herb books, I immediately started researching ethno-botanical resources to see what data existed about Native American usage, and wherever else this plant might be found.

It turned out that Native Americans in this region used it as a sort of respiratory anti-spasmodic – or what we could even term as a “relaxing expectorant.” This coincides with research done with some of the alkaloids from this plant which were found to lower blood pressure, induce shivering and accelerate deep respiration in dogs.

As luck would have it, there was a chest-cold type of illness going around in our family at that time. I took the immediate opportunity to mix the fresh lantana leaves into a formula I had already used a few times before with great success: Juniper needles, wild rosemary leaves and virginia creeper bark (or just the vine stalk cut up). To this, I added lantana leaves – all ingredients in equal amounts – and made a steam-inhalation pan/pot out of it. This worked very well, and the next time around, I tried the lantana leaves alone in the same setup which again worked very well specifically as a relaxing expectorant.

The next thing I wondered about this plant, even though I hadn’t found any information about it (ethno-botanically), was if it might be a type of vulnerary, or tissue-healing/protecting plant? I don’t know what made me think this, but I know that a lot of respiratory herbs work well on the skin as well, and I just had an intuitive feeling that this was maybe worth a try.

I didn’t have to wait too long. Working with knives, axes, etc., much of the time, I do get the occasional cut. This particular time, I had a full bag of throwing knives, some of which were brand new and very sharp. While paying more attention to one of my dogs that I thought was chasing after a deer, I was reaching into the bag to pull out a few knives, and suffered a nice deep (through all layers of skin) laceration on my hand, maybe 1.5″ long or so. After a few moments of obligatory cussing, I walked over to one of the few dozen, healthy lantana bushes we have growing around our property. I picked 3 or 4 younger leaves that looked the most juicy, and squeezed them into a pulp as much as I could between my fingers. This green pulp I then stuck into the cut, squeezing out the juice into the cut and literally sealing off the cut with this green bandage. What happened next was really amazing. The wound stung similar to the sting you feel (although milder) with alcohol. The bleeding stopped. After about 5 minutes of holding that bandage on, there was literally no pain. Not that the cut hurt badly to begin with, but it was literally as though there was no cut.

This fascinated me, so I took a few more leaves, rinsed them lightly with cold water, turned them to pulp and bandaged them onto the wound as a poultice. The cut healed up very well overnight, not even the slightest tinge of red (infection) that is common if you look closely enough at any cut after 12 hours or so, and the edges were pulled together and healing very nicely.

Up to this point, the only anti-microbial type of wound-healing herb I had used with this much success had been chaparral (Larrea spp.). Comfrey of course works well, as do several other plants (mullein, plantain, etc) for wound-healing, but not with the anti-microbial type of action.

The fact that lantana has alkaloids that are dangerous (toxic to livestock and humans) is part of what makes it medicinal, most likely. Reading more detail, both ethno-botanical and current studies, reveals its possible use internally as a diaphoretic, febrifuge, vermifuge, cardio tonic, anti-viral, anti-bacterial and even possible anti-tumor activity. Externally as a hemostatic, anti-microbial and tissue healer (vulnerary), I would probably rate this plant as one of my own top 5 external-use plants.

Younger leaf growth seems to be most effective. Dried and/or made into a salve would be the preferred preparations (I always prefer poultice of the raw/dried herb over a salve, but that is of course not always possible or very convenient).

Additional uses I have found for lantana: Berries (WHEN RIPE, DO NOT EAT UNRIPE LANTANA BERRIES) are actually edible. Supposedly. Just seeing or reading that they have been eaten in small quantities is probably still a whole different level of “edibility” than for instance a blueberry. I’ve eaten a few of them ripe and raw, and felt a little bit queasy afterward. Cooked and strained they might be edible or even jelly material. I couldn’t say on that subject as I haven’t taken the time to harvest and do something with the berries (yet). However, I would say that anything you do with this plant, do with caution. There is no doubt that parts the plant can be toxic to humans, and as always, the plants on the “toxic” end of the spectrum are often very powerful medicine. The safest application of the plant, in my own experience so far, is as a medicine and for external use in wound care.

A few final additional uses are that:
1) The roots of this plant are amazing basket and weaving material. The stalks/stems are decent as well, but the roots extend horizontally over long distances and grow close to the surface. A large shrub may have many dozens of feet of flexible roots (even when dry – although it re-wets just fine too) branching off in each and every direction.
2) The stems make decent hand-drills for friction fire starting if you can find a straight and long enough stalk

So to summarize the uses I have personally found for this amazing plant (which is considered an invasive, noxious weed by many people), as well as a few others:

This is another example of what we consider an invasive species (or “opportunistic species” as I prefer to call them) that is actually an extremely useful plant. It is one of my favorite plants in my own local-plant herbal pharmacy, and has proven its worth time and again for me.